Florida State’s new support staff as important as on-field coaches | Gridironnow.com

In this look inside Florida State Football’s new staff, headed by Willie Taggart, Gridironnow.com gives a desrving shout out to the front office staff and and pretty good description of what’s expected from the Director of Operations position at a big time football school.

By James Coleman

With David Kelly expected to join the Florida State football program as a general manager to renovate team’s recruiting process, what other changes to the Seminoles’ “front office” can we look forward to? Who are the faces you can expect to see, why should you be excited, what responsibilities will they have, and why are they essential in today’s game?

The three most important roles among the off-field, “front office” staff in today’s game are Director of Football Operations, Director of Player Engagement and Development, and On-Campus Recruiting Coordinator.

Fans see coaches on the sidelines working with players and understand the importance of an offensive coordinator to developing a game plan, but as in any large organization, there’s a great deal of important work to be done behind-the-scenes most people never recognize. This work doesn’t just “happen” and the people who do it in college football must be deliberate professionals operating with purpose in order to get the most out of current student-athletes and to attract the best future student-athletes.

At the college level, directors of football operations focus on logistics. They set up and oversee an athlete’s housing and academic affairs once a recruit arrives on campus. They handle travel arrangements for the team: meals, hotels, buses, booking the flights, handling the ticket request of the players, etc.

A college football team has 100 players, a dozen coaches and several dozen support staff. That’s a lot of moving parts. Directors of football ops make sure all the moving parts are moving in the right direction. The team can’t be operated without operations. It makes sense that Willie Taggart will bring Sharrod Everett to do this job. He’s been at every stop with him. You also can’t find his name on Oregon’s website anymore.

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